Avionics/Electronics

MPM tool helps cut wire harness manufacturing costs With today’s extreme pressure to reduce costs, wire harness manufacturing is the focus of much attention, and Mentor Graphics has responded to this need with its Capital Harness Manufacturing Process Management (MPM) software application. Read full story

Engineering from the lab to the field Success on the modern battlefield depends on the rapid collection and processing of vast quantities of information. As new platforms and sensors are fielded at an ever-increasing rate, the challenge of processing and analyzing the flood of intelligence grows exponentially. Read full story

Honeywell combined vision system aids in low-visibility landing A study by a team of engineers from Honeywell provides evidence for an equivalency of performance of a head-down, primary flight display with synthetic vision and Enhanced Vision—a Combined Vision System—to the performance with a HUD with IR imagery. Read full story

Medical robotics save the day for NASA satellites Leveraging their reputation as experts in medical robotics, Johns Hopkins engineers have turned their attention skyward to help NASA with a space dilemma. Read full story

Pitt has singular focus on switches Researchers have invented a new type of electronic switch that performs electronic logic functions within a single molecule. Read full story

UAVs shrink as technology grows AeroVironment says it achieved a technological milestone never achieved before by building and flying a wing-flapping air vehicle, carrying its own energy source and using only two flapping wings for propulsion and control. Read full story

BLASTing brownout Examining the nature of U.S. military helicopter losses from 2002-08, BAE identified a very significant proportion of accidents that could have been avoided, or reduced, by using an active scanning radar sensor and new integrated software. Read full story

Dunmore materials insulate in space Insulating films and tapes supplied by Dunmore Corp. are providing protection from thermal damage and magnetic interference for the electronic systems on board NASA’s Juno probe, which was launched from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida on Aug. 5. Read full story

New airframes and avionics put up a different lightning fight Latest lightning-protection standards drive a new generation of transient voltage suppressor solutions that are better capable of diffusing accumulated heat within the short timescale of a typical multi-stroke lightning-strike pulse train. Read full story